Thursday, November 27, 2014

Stephanie took the last hit off the joint and handed it
to Marco to finish it. She reached into
her bag and pulled out her bottle of Patchouli, she had learned early that it
covered the smell of pot. She pulled out
her lip gloss that had a strong strawberry taste, applied it in a thick layer
and licked her lips. Her friends at the
local school she went to in Redbank had taught her well. Thinking back they
were the reason she ended up at Polly Prep, Hell
that was like out of the frying pan and into the fire. She thought, as she
headed back into the arena. It was
dangerous, but the thrill of sneaking around behind her father’s back, and
Lexie wouldn’t say anything, she was still worried about the trio.

Lexie was standing at the craft table with a bottle of
water and her cell watching her babies sitting in bonce chairs and watching a
Disney movie. The nanny was sitting on
the floor with them, switching camera’s to make sure she wasn’t asleep. Out of the corner of her eye she watched
Stephanie walk into the green room.

“Hey Lexie, how are the trio doing?” Stephanie asked as she grabbed a bottle of
water.

“Watching a movie.
Did you have a nice visit?” Lexie
watched Stephanie take a sip of water.

Nearly choking on her sip of water, Stephanie looked up at
her.

“Jesse told me you went out to visit some friends you
have on the crew.” Lexie said as she
smiled and then put her phone in her small cross body handbag Stephanie told
her she needed to bring.

“Yeah, we grew up around a lot of these guys, it’s like a
family, ya know?” She put the cap on her
water.

“That’s great.
When do were go down to our seats?”
Lexie asked, sort of letting the subject die. She could see she shocked Stephanie. She would let her stew a little.

“Oh we don’t have seats, didn’t dad show you where we
stand?” Stephanie went over and leaned
on the back of Jesse seat.

“He did, just never stood for a concert.” Lexie told Stephanie. “Better make a pit stop then before we had
down.” Lexie gave her the excuse to
leave, just wishing she could hear what went on while she left the room. Wonder
is I left my phone on to do a video if it would still record, Lexie thought
as she reached into her bag and took out her phone and sent it to record a
video and sat it where the kids couldn’t see it. She headed to the bathroom.

Stephanie waited until till Lexie was out of the
room. She reached over and smacked Jesse
in the back of the head.

“What the hell was that for?” Jesse jumped out of the
chair and turned on his sister. Then it
hit him, he took a deep breath, patchouli.
Getting an evil smile on his face he laughed. “You get caught doing something you weren’t
supposed to be doing?”

“I don’t know.”
Stephanie said flopping down in his chair.

“You reek of Patchouli, Lexie wasn’t born yesterday, and
she went to college. You think she
doesn’t know you were,” he remembered where he was and knew if Romeo heard what
he said he would tattle to his dad. “You
know what I mean?”

“I don’t know if she will or not. Maybe she didn’t see anything.” She held up
crossed fingers.

Lexie made sure she flushed the toilet and made a
production about washing her hands and coming out of the bathroom. She smiled at the kids and headed over to the
craft table and picked up a cookie, just as Jon came in the door followed by
the band and Matt. Lexie snatched up her
phone and ended the recording.

“Hey our magic weapon is here.” Richie said as he wrapped his arms around
Lexie and spun her in the air.

“Hey Mook, I have told you a hundred times, get your
hands off my wife.” Jon yelled over
Lexie’s giggles.

Richie put her down and David got his in, picking her up
and spinning her around too.

“Lemma, not you too, get your own woman.” Jon yelled again.

He gave Hugh and Tico the stink eye, they held up their
hands and backed up.

David let her drop to her feet and Jon grabbed her hand
and pulled her close. Lexie slipped her
phone into her back pocket, before she dropped it. She really didn’t want to say anything until
she knew what she was up against.

They spent time in the green room until Matt said it was
time for Lexie and Stephanie to head down to the area they would stand in.

They were walking down to the backstage area, just before
they got to the pit area where the press stood, Stephanie took her hand and
stopped her.

“We’ll be with you in a minute Uncle Matt.” Stephanie told her uncle. She turned to Lexie, “Are you going to tell
daddy what you saw?”

Lexie thought on the answer, they had gotten closer since
the wedding and the hospital stay, should she blow it now?

“You tell me, should I? I heard what he said about your
graduation party.” Lexie sent the question back at her.

“It’s up to you, it was a slip up, they handed it to me, and
I didn’t think a few hits would hurt.”
Stephanie said making it sound like so normal, a casual thing between
friends. “If I promise not to do it
again, will you keep it between just us?”

“You mean the three of us, I assume Jesse knows?” Lexie asked, knowing she had proof on her
cell phone.

“Alright the three of us.” Stephanie sighed.

“If you two don’t come on you’ll have to wait to go
out.” Matt walked back giving Lexie a
questioning look.

“Be right there Matt, we’ll discuss this later
Steph.” Lexie told her, as once again
they joined Matt.

Matt left them near the side of the stage and took made
his way back to walk Jon and the band.

Lexie was remembering what it looked like empty, turning
she look up at the arena almost full, there were a few in the back still
empty. Several flashes caught her eye,
they had been recognized. She looked over at Stephanie to see how she was
reacting. She just seemed to be ignoring
it. Lexie was used to being friendly
with her fans, this was hard.

She didn’t have long to think before the lights went out
and something was pushed into her hand.
Looking down she found a pair of earplugs. Quickly cringing at the decibel the screams
climbed to, she knew her husband was taking the stage.

She stood mesmerized by the way he strutted around the
stage and hearing the screams grow, if that was possible, when he shook his ass
for them. She was so into the concert
she never noticed Matt had joined them.
She jumped when he touched her shoulder and motioned for her to follow
him. Thinking that it was a short show
she followed Matt, who walked her to the side of the stage.

She stood there for a while, from this point, she could
see almost see the back of the arena.
The audience was into the music and clapping, waving their arms and
singing at the top of their lungs.

All of a sudden the music changed to Bed of Roses. She watched him close his eyes and sing, just
like he did at their wedding reception. She was getting into the music, swaying
and humming along. Lord knows, she
couldn’t sing, she could hardly carry a tune in a basket. It wasn’t until he was standing in front of
her, she watched him hold out his hand to her.
She reached out and placed her hand in his, just like she did when they
were married. Blanking out everything
around them, they swayed to the music. All too soon he leaned her back and gave
her a kiss and walked her off the stage back to Matt.

Matt took her hand and looked at Jon and mouthed green
room, to which Jon nodded in agreement.
As they walked off, he headed back to center stage and finished the
song. He knew Matt would come back for
Stephanie, so one song latter he gave an audible for I’ve Got the Girl.

“You know the good Lord blessed me with two more girls,
we all evened up, till my new youngest son swung the balanced back to us
men.” He walked to the edge of the stage
and sat down. He knew she would get the
hint, but she didn’t he put down the mic and motioned for her to come
over. Security helped her hop up to sit
beside him. Picking the mic back up he
looked out at the audience, this was something he never did before. “She’ll always be my baby girl, even when
she’s older.” The band started I’ve Got
the Girl.

He sat there singing to Stephanie, at one point giving her
the stink eye when he inhaled the scent of heavy patchouli. He would have to be the bad guy when he got
back to the hotel. She had been
warned. All the while singing, he did a
mental check and at the end of the song sang, “I’ve got the girls.” A picture
flashed of Stephanie sitting in a rocker with Livie and Maddy. It flashed just a second, but the screams
were deafening.

Matt came back, just in time to help Stephanie jump down
from the stage, after Jon gave her a peck on the cheek.

Lexie checked on the boys and then the trio, she headed
to the bathroom to also listen to the recording. She heard all she needed to, listening to
Jesse and Stephanie talking. Then she
wondered if Jesse had sent her out to catch his sister.

When she came out, Stephanie had joined them. It wasn’t long till Matt came to send them
back to the limo, and onto the hotel. They had the whole floor for the band
members, Jon had the presidential suite.
There was a center living room, with a mini kitchenette bar area, and
two bedrooms. She got the kids settled
and came back to the bar and got out glasses and a bottle of wine, pulling out
the opener and drawing the cork, she would let it breathe till Jon got
here. Going back to the fridge she got
out her bottle of Pepsi. She was about
to turn on the television when the door opened and Jon walked in.

“Stephanie Rose, my room now.” Jon’s voice broke the
silence in the room. “I’ll need
something stronger, is there jack in there?”
He was so pissed at his daughter to defy his rule and smoked pot. Jon headed to his room and then came back to
the door waiting on Stephanie to join him.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Jon sat there stunned, that last bit of news came
straight out of left field. He was
finishing his second glass of wine when Lexie came down. He was lost in his thoughts and private
demons.

Lexie went over to the bar and pulled out of bottle of
water and sat down on the sofa.

“Penny for your thoughts.” Lexie asked as she sipped her water.

He didn’t know what to say, the problems with Stephanie
started before Lexie ever came into his life.
He didn’t want to burden her with what they had been through. The fact that Stephanie could be doing drugs
again shocked him. They had gone through
this mess back when he and Doro split, and being tossed between parents, she
let her friends talk her into smoking pot, pot had led to pain killers and
other drugs. They had gone through therapy
as a whole family. But after the divorce,
he thought things were getting better.

“Just glad to be home.”
He sat the empty wine glass down.

“Glad you’re home too.”
She watched the shadows cross his face.

He got up from the chair and moved over to the sofa and
sat beside her. Pulling her into his lap
he sighed.

“I have missed you so much.” He leaned her back in his arms and set his
lips to hers. He lowered her till her back was to the sofa,
his lips never left hers. His tongue plundered her mouth. His hands worked the shirt up, groaning when
he felt the front closure of her bra.
Freeing her lush breast, his thumbs pulled and pinched her nipples into
begging points. Lexie arched her back at this assault on her body. Lexie let Jon take what he wanted from her
body. There, in the family room, on the
sofa he had her withering and sweating and moaning, screaming his name.

“Wow.” Lexie
finally said. This was the first time
they had made love since the trio was born.
“Maybe it’s true what they say.”
Looking up at her husband.

“What’s that Lex?”
Jon eased off her as their hearts went back to normal, and stood
up. Hell, they were still half
dressed. Her jeans and panties were
around her ankles and her shirt was somewhere on the floor. His shirt must have landed somewhere near
hers and his jeans were around his hips. They had gone at it like randy
teenagers.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” She sat up and
watched him pull up his pants. “That and
the sex is off the chart.”

That caught him as funny.
He lost it when he saw her holding in the laughter.

“I love you Lex.”
Jon laughed.

“I love you too, Jon.” She joined in his laughter.

They interviewed four people for a nanny to the trio and
to watch the older four. They both
agreed that Robbie’s friend would be the best. They had Helen sign contracts
not to publish pictures of any of the kids.
The standard confidentiality contract, she would answer to Lexie, unless
she broke the contract, than she would answer to Matt Bongiovi and the lawyer.

She would watch the trio, while Lexie and the older kids
went to the Philly show, they sat up a daybed in the trio’s room, when she
stayed overnight.

This was the first time Lexie had left the triplets and
to spend the night away from them was going to be really hard. Hell walking out the door of the townhome was
torture.

“Mom, you have the nanny cam you can watch the trio from
there.” Stephanie said as they headed
toward Philly. Randy had picked them up and loaded their bags and they were on
the way.

Lexie sat back for the ride, but kept her cell in her
hand. Checking ever so often.

“Mom, is this your first time to see Daddy in
concert?” Stephanie asked looking up
from her Ipad.

“My first time as his wife, but I have been to one
concert. He inspired me to make my main
character in his likeness.” She laughed.
“I had been tossing around some ideas, my friend took me to the concert,
and we sat near the stage. The lights
came on and I was like that’s him, he’s perfect.” She remembered about pulling her friends arm
out of the socket. The girls around her
were screaming Jon’s name and all she could think of was she had her Max.

“Well, Uncle Matt will give us our laminates and we can
either stay in the dressing room or go out and sit in the secured area.” Jesse told her. “I usually keep up with those two,” He
pointed to his brothers. “Uncle Tony
usually sets up the Wii for us.”

“We can go out and watch the concert.” Stephanie told
her.

Jon stood on stage for sound check, he had been told that
is family was on the road. He didn’t
rush the sound check, they had been hitting everything spot on, so they were
due for a screw up.

“No broken strings tonight Rich, you better not snap
one.” Jon yelled as he watched Richie do the lead in for Born To Be My Baby.

“Just have’m checked before tonight.” Jon looked down at his teleprompter the words
Breathe came up. “And now we have heard
from the peanut gallery.”

Tico gave him a rim shot and David laughed. Jon threw up his hands and walked off stage.

The car pulled into the arena parking lot and around to
the artist entrance, Lexie’s heart raced a little faster. They had not only made love on the sofa but
twice before he had to leave for Philly, but it felt like she still needed
more.

Matt met them at the door.

“Hey Lex, now that you’re here maybe big brother will
relax.” Matt said as he handed her the
laminate for her neck and the pass to go on her jean leg.

“Hey I did my best this morning.” Lexie teased with her brother in law.

They followed Matt to the green room and he got the kids
settled with the craft table and the video games. He took Lexie to Jon’s dressing room.

Knocking she waited on him to answer the door. It opened a little crack and a hand reached
out and pulled her into the room

“Shhhhhh don’t tell my wife you’re here.” He backed her to the closed door and put his
lips to hers. When they got their fill
of each other he let her come into his room.
“Stan is gonna be mad at you,” Jon laughed. “He’s gonna have to really
stretch me out tonight.”

Lexie licked her still tingling lips. She watched him go over to the massage
table. Taking a deep breath she got that
special smile when she watched her husband walk away.

“Hey, you were awfully limbered up last night, we left
feet prints on the ceiling.” She follows
him to sit on the massage table and swings her feet. “So this is your dressing room.” She looked around.

“Yep” Jon said as he turned on the cool mist vaporizer,
then went to the fridge and pulled out two mini bottles of water, and tossed
her one.

“Kind of dark and plain.
Not what I expected.” Lexie said
as she sipped her water. “I guess it’s
relaxing, is that rosemary in that thing.”

“Yeah it helps my voice.
Once I get stretched out I’ll show you the quick change room, it’s under
the stage, and light and I have the picture David took of us and the kids on
the steps and the one from our wedding.”
He sat beside her and took her hand in his. “I’m glad you came.”

“Me too, this is my first concert as your wife.” She admitted.
“I have to admit, there was only one.
I had this idea in my head to write an adult book, but I couldn’t grasp
the male lead character. My friend had an extra ticket and you walked out of
the stage, well Max had changed my world.”

“Then I’m glad I had a little part in your books, because
Max sort of brought us together.” He
reached over and patted her knee.

Stan finally can in and Lexie moved off the table and
watched as Stan pulled Jon one way or the other, Pops and snaps came from Jon’s
limbs. When Stan was sure Jon was ready
to take the stage he let him up from the table.

“I might have some use for Stan, after a long writing challenge
to go and untie my pretzel back.” Lexie
told Jon and Stan.

“I’ll be happy to pull out the kinks for you Mrs. Bongiovi.”
Stan told Lexie, as he was packing up.

Jon wrapped his arms around Lexie from the back and gave
Stan the stink eye.

“Keep your paws off my woman Stan, I don’t share my
wife.” Jon grabbed her hand and ushered
her out of the room. Laughing he took
her to the stage.

Standing on the center of the stage, looking out to where
the fans will be. Lexie took a deep
breath.

“You face this every night? How far can you see when the lights are down
and you’re in the spotlight.” Lexie
asked him.

Coming up behind her and putting his arms around her and
put his chin on her shoulder.

“Not as far as I used to, that’s why in Wanted during
seen a million faces, we throw on all the lights and let all the fans be
seen.” He told her quietly. “I’ll be able to see you and Steph, Matt says
you’ll be down here.” He pointed to the
area between the rail and the stage. “You’ll be with the press and the radio
people.”

“I can’t wait.” She sighed. Looking where she and Stephanie were going to
be and the fans. They haven’t been
really supportive of her with Jon. She
had been told by Carol that even when Dot and Jon had been first married, Dot
had received some death threats. One fan
even set fire to the fence at the house they had on Somerset. She had an uneasy feeling.

“Hey Jon, we have a tour group coming in, you and Lexie,
might want to head backstage.” Came
Matt’s voice came over the PA.

Jon touched his earpiece, “We’re going to quick change
and then we’ll head to the green room.”

“Okay, just giving you two the heads up.” Matt let them know.

“Come on, be careful on the steps.” Jon took her hand and they headed to his quick
change. “Here it is.”

It looked like the inside of a tent with no roof. It was in essence four curtains hung from the
ceiling, there was an old makeup table and chair. Blow dryers were plugged into a huge drop
cord, on a little table sat an industrial coffee urn with hot tea and the mug
that Romeo made for him in school. There
was a clothes rack with several shirts hung up. Their wedding picture and the
one of the kids on the steps with the trio, were hung from along with the
curtains.

“This is nice, how long do you have down here?” Lexie asked him, making a circuit of the
room,

“One song.” He
moved the brush over a little. “Richie
does his solo and I come down, blow the hair a little.” He checked to see if
the blow drier was plugged in. “Holly helps me, her husband is a roadie.”

Lexie turned and watched him, wondering if he feels the
same way she felt when he invaded her writing area?

“We better head back before we’re stuck.” Lexie went over and took his hand.

By the time they got back
to the green room, Jon had to go do an interview and Lexie went in search of
Stephanie. Jesse told her she was
possibly outside with some of the roadies that she knew from past tours. She followed Jesse’s directions and pulled up
short when did see Stephanie, who was standing with a group of roadies. One of the roadies passed her what to Lexie
thought was a joint. Backing up, Lexie
headed back into the arena. Should she
tell Jon or wait until she can talk to Stephanie. Her mind screamed give her the benefit of the
doubt, but she remembered what Jon said the other day about her birthday party
last year. She knew what Pot smelled
like from college, and she knew even if you don’t smoke it, you can get a
contact high, and the smell lingers on your clothes. She was so torn.